I find it's better to lean the body back somewhat. This allows you to align your body to deliver more power. (It's like a horizontal stomp, instead of a perpendicular kick. Also, it takes your head out of range of a counterstrike.

_________________________
In my walk in the martial way, my hope is that as long as I live, I will always be a beginner.

We are probably saying the same thing. When people kick the air they tend to keep their hips in the same place and just move the leg. This creates a habit of not using the forward momentum of the body in the kick. By driving the hip forward the upper body "leans" back- so to my mind it's the hip going forward not the body leaning back that adds power. Same thing on a knee you bring the hip into it by arching the back-if you just arch the back you lose power. Hope that makes sense.

First thing I would note is that your kick is limited by how high your knee is. If you lift your knee to belt hi, that is how high you kick. In order to kick higher you need to practice bringing your knee up. I would suggest doing knee lifts and tapping your shoulder with it. Don't worry about kicking right away. Once you feel the knee come up easily, just let the kick go. It will be higher.I don't normally advise kicking high in actual fighting but practicing high has its uses. Basically, if you can kick high easily, your kicks anywhere lower will really benefit as well.You might also try thrusting your hips forward just a bit. I refer to this a "lead with your belt." If you drive your hips in just a bit (not to be confused with an actual front thrust kick), the pad will move back a lot better.Cheers,Jeff G.

I know that in Shorinryu at least a slight tilt backwards on the front snap kick (mae geri) is permissable, but personally I don't like it. I prefer to actually lean FORWARD if anything. Hell, I figure that I'm following that kick in, anyway. To me, the kick is like artillery; it weakens the defense and allows the infantry (my hands) to finish the attack.

Aside from keeping your guard up, any energy expended should be in your lower body. The upper body may appear to sag, since it's so relaxed.

It depends on the situation. If I want to break his gueard or force my way inside, then definately lean forward. If I want to stop-hit, or attack quickly then I dont lean at all. At six foot, I can throw this at chin height quickly with little effort. If I want to keep the guy back I MIGHT use a backwards leaning front kick like a thrusting Muay Thai type kick. Is would allow you to keep your head back and can be done reasonably quickly. Really to me though, there are a lot of drawbacks to this type of attack so I rarely us it. It would work well as a finisher if it landed though, like 300.

_________________________
"When I let Go of who I am, I become who I might be." Lao Tzu

<<not enough power in my right fount Kick. Because I was snapping it back to quickly,and not extending it through the target.

There are two (2) families of kicking, the first is the THRUST kick, the other is the SNAP. There are different opinions as to the power of one or the other type. What you describe are two different creatures.

Regardless of which is used the penetration must go through the surface of the pad, not merely touching its surface skin. It is a learning process for a reason... with enough time you will have good mechanics.

Exactly! The mae geri, or front SNAP kick should drop the opponent where he's standing. The mae konate, or front THRUST kick is delivered with the heel rather than the ball of the foot, and should propel him backwards.

Physics and experience tell me that when you kick someone hard with a straight line kick they go backwards-equal/opposite. Never had anyone drops straight down on a front kick (except in point sparring when penetration was shallow because of light contact rules)-usually flew back about 10 feet with a real surprised look on their face, held their tummy and then tried to flee the scene.